PROMOTION - ATL, BTL & IMC

The simplest definition of promotion could be the advancement of a product, service, idea or point of view through sales promotion and advertising.

Promotion plays a vital role in the success of a product or service. Not only do promotional activities attract sales for the company they also spread awareness and communicate with a large audience at the same time.  The various promotion activities can be broadly classified into two categories – Above the line (ATL) and Below the line (BTL).

ATL Promotion: ATL advertising uses media such as television, cinema, radio, print, and Out-of-home to promote brands or convey a specific offer. This type of communication is conventional in nature and is considered impersonal to customers. It differs from BTL advertising, which uses unconventional brand-building and promotional strategies.  Some of Frooti’s famous campaigns are:

1.  Shahrukh Khan Ad Campaign: One of the most successful TV commercials of is their latest one in which they resort to celebrity endorsement for the first time. Shahrukh Khan has been used to promote the product. The film, shot after a game practice, intercuts between Shahrukh gulping Frooti and a bunch of little soccer players yearning for the mango drink. When Shahrukh is done with his Frooti and looks around, he is taken aback to see the players (who were actually adults!) staring at him in child-like innocence. He says: ‘What?’ and breaks them out of the spell. The embarrassed players smile sheepishly and get back to what they were doing. What makes the ad even more enchanting is the soulful track that holds the film together. 

Find below images of the campaign.

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        2. The Digen Verma Campaign: The Company wanted to reposition its product and create hype around it. Hence they introduced a mysterious character called Digen Verma. Frooti had always been positioned as a drink for kids. Now, they wanted to position it as a drink for the youth, especially, the college-going teenagers. They therefore went in for a real life, down-to-earth person, who, like any college student likes to bunk classes, is a good sportsman and is a popular figure in the college, with whom the teenagers can actually associate themselves. The enigma called 'Digen Verma' was everywhere, in buses, film halls, colleges, cyber cafes and shopping malls. 'JUST who is Digen Verma?' That's what the nation seemed to be have been wanting to know. In the 15 days that the campaign lasted in (February 2001), Digen Verma seemed to have become the most talked about faceless name in the country.

Screenshots of other Commercials and ATL promotion over the years

      BTL (Below The Line) Promotion:  BTL sales promotion is an immediate or delayed incentive to purchase, expressed in cash or in kind, and having short duration. It is efficient and cost-effective for targeting a limited and specific group. It uses less conventional methods than the usual ATL channels of advertising, typically focusing on direct means of communication, most commonly direct mail and e-mail, often using highly targeted lists of names to maximize response rates.

      Frooti rarely indulges in such form of promotion.

      Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

      Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is an approach to brand communications where the different modeswork together to create a seamless experience for the customer and are presented with a similar tone and style that reinforces the brand’s core message. Its goal is to make all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations direct marketing, online communications and social media work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation, which maximizes their cost effectiveness.
An example of this in relation to Frooti would be:

      Juicy Mango Surprise Project:  The campaign captures people’s reaction to giant sized props in the form of mangoes which suddenly appear on the streets, rolling down from above a slope. In most cases, the mangoes seem to be chasing the people on the streets and the video captures their reaction to the charging mango.

      Billed as an integrated campaign which involved a live outdoor stunt, on-ground activities, a direct marketing campaign, word of mouth buzz and television spots, besides viral videos, the campaign titled ‘Juicy Mango  Surprise Project’ was repeated across 12 metros and mini metros across the country in malls, schools, colleges and popular youth hang-outs. In the videos, the people who have been played a prank on are greeted by a Frooti undercover agent who will explain the idea behind the stunt and hand them a complementary bottle of Frooti.  

      Images of the campaign:

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